What are the differences between the iPF5100 and the iPF5000?
Theses are the improvements claimed by Canon:
New black inks to reduce bronzing and improve scratch resistance, and reduce print graininess (even from Firmware 1.23 on iPF5000). Comment: John Hollenberg has seen iPF5100 prints sent by Avalan and confirms that bronzing is reduced by 85-90%. Scott Martin of Onsight calls the B&W prints made with the new black inks "stunning".
Printer calibration to reduce inter-unit delta-E to 2 or less.
Built in roll feed unit. Comment: This will almost certainly take care of one of the biggest criticisms of the iPF5000, a design defect that caused roll feed units to malfunction and required a service call to fix. The broken tabs problem on the roll feed unit should be solved as well. Update 4/28/09: The Wiki has received NO reports of malfunctioning roll feed units for X100 generation printers.
a new, quieter platen fan and sound-absorbing material added to the inner wall of intake ducts in the iPF5100 printer combine to yield quieter operation (per official Canon iPF5100 brochure)
Black inks will not be backward compatible with iPF5000.
There are several other improvements:
Top manual feed now works with paper up to 62 inches in length--no more concerns about feeding 17X25 inch sheets
There are 5 additional Special Media Types for matte papers (iPF5000 Special Media Types are for photo papers only)
Export plugin improvements:
Full screen preview
More print quality selections - 32 pass printing (iPF5000 maxed out at 16 pass) Comment: It is not known yet if this produces a visible improvement in quality. Scott Martin of Onsight reports that 32 pass is only supported for photo black compatible media, but not for matte media.
What are the differences between the iPF5100 and the iPF5000?
Theses are the improvements claimed by Canon:
There are several other improvements: